Glenn J. "Jake" Lawlor was for more than five decades one of the best-known sports figures in Nevada. A native of Iowa and at nineteen already an accomplished athlete, Lawlor arrived in Nevada in 1926 to attend the university at Reno. There, in company with his brother, he achieved recognition for outstanding performances in baseball, basketball, and football. The Lawlor brothers were familiar to hundreds of spectators at sports events all over the West during the 1920s.

After graduation from the University of Nevada in 1930 and a brief career in professional baseball, Jake Lawlor became a high school coach at Virginia City, Nevada, where he served as mentor for high school, elementary school, and town athletes from 1932 to 1937. Leaving Virginia City to pursue graduate studies, he subsequently accepted a new coaching assignment at Delano, California, where he coached the teams of the Delano Joint Union High School from 1938 to 1942, visiting often in Reno to see friends or for summer work.

In 1942, Jake Lawlor returned to the University of Nevada, where he served as coach in nearly every sport, as a friend and advisor to hundreds of students, and as an inspiration both to young players and to other coaches. Lawlor was at the university during its brief "big time" sports era and through years of retrenchment in the athletics program. He was coach to both outstanding professionals and to youngsters who just enjoyed a good game. Many, if not most, of the present-day high school coaches in Nevada learned their craft from Jake Lawlor; probably thousands of students acquired the elements of sports and sportsmanship under his tutelage. Lawlor's oral history ranges widely over nearly all segments of his lengthy career.